Irene Fernandez acquitted 12 years after arrest
A Malaysian court on Monday acquitted a prominent labor activist who was arrested 12 years ago for claiming that police tortured illegal immigrants in detention.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled in favor of Irene Fernandez, the director of the human rights group Tenaganita, who had appealed a one-year prison sentence issued in 2003 for maliciously publishing false news. Justice Datuk Mohamed Apandi Ali acquitted Fernandez after the prosecution informed the court that it was not opposing her appeal against conviction and sentence on the grounds that the appeal record was incomprehensible.
"I'm so happy that finally truth and justice prevailed," Fernandez, 62, told The Associated Press. "I should never have been charged in the first place."
She was arrested in 1996 for reporting that illegal immigrants were tortured at detention centers but remained free on bail while fighting her case. Seven years later, she was sentenced to one year in prison but appealed.
Prosecutor Shamsul Sulaiman said the prosecution decided not to oppose the appeal because typed records from earlier court proceedings contained "systemic errors." The errors occurred when a court official typed up the judge's handwritten notes, Shamsul said. He told the AP he would have been "quite confident of fighting the appeal" had the records been in order.
Fernandez, 62, had been sentenced to 12 months jail by the Kuala Lumpur Magistrate's Court on Oct 16, 2003, for publishing a memorandum containing false news at the Tenaganita Sdn Bhd office at No. 28c, Lorong Bunus Enam, off Jalan Masjid India, on Aug 25, 1995. She was alleged to have exposed the poor conditions at immigration detention centres in a memorandum entitled, "Abuse, Torture and Dehumanised Conditions of Migrant Workers in Detention Centres" which allegedly contained 16 statements that were found to be false. Fernandez's 1995 report was compiled from interviews with more than 300 former detainees.The report alleged that illegal immigrants died in Malaysian camps from malnutrition and torture. The government confirmed 98 detainees had died, but said they succumbed to diseases contracted in their homelands.
Over the weekend, New York-based Human Rights Watch had called for the "politically motivated" charges against Fernandez to be dropped. "Irene Fernandez and her organization documented the government's sadistic and humiliating treatment of migrants," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Human Rights Watch has also documented such treatment."
The Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled in favor of Irene Fernandez, the director of the human rights group Tenaganita, who had appealed a one-year prison sentence issued in 2003 for maliciously publishing false news. Justice Datuk Mohamed Apandi Ali acquitted Fernandez after the prosecution informed the court that it was not opposing her appeal against conviction and sentence on the grounds that the appeal record was incomprehensible.
"I'm so happy that finally truth and justice prevailed," Fernandez, 62, told The Associated Press. "I should never have been charged in the first place."
She was arrested in 1996 for reporting that illegal immigrants were tortured at detention centers but remained free on bail while fighting her case. Seven years later, she was sentenced to one year in prison but appealed.
Prosecutor Shamsul Sulaiman said the prosecution decided not to oppose the appeal because typed records from earlier court proceedings contained "systemic errors." The errors occurred when a court official typed up the judge's handwritten notes, Shamsul said. He told the AP he would have been "quite confident of fighting the appeal" had the records been in order.
Fernandez, 62, had been sentenced to 12 months jail by the Kuala Lumpur Magistrate's Court on Oct 16, 2003, for publishing a memorandum containing false news at the Tenaganita Sdn Bhd office at No. 28c, Lorong Bunus Enam, off Jalan Masjid India, on Aug 25, 1995. She was alleged to have exposed the poor conditions at immigration detention centres in a memorandum entitled, "Abuse, Torture and Dehumanised Conditions of Migrant Workers in Detention Centres" which allegedly contained 16 statements that were found to be false. Fernandez's 1995 report was compiled from interviews with more than 300 former detainees.The report alleged that illegal immigrants died in Malaysian camps from malnutrition and torture. The government confirmed 98 detainees had died, but said they succumbed to diseases contracted in their homelands.
Over the weekend, New York-based Human Rights Watch had called for the "politically motivated" charges against Fernandez to be dropped. "Irene Fernandez and her organization documented the government's sadistic and humiliating treatment of migrants," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Human Rights Watch has also documented such treatment."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jF97_ahzzHW3hKJZyK64lYMoIgNwD94L71200
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